And while the city consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the country thanks in part to a strong economy and tons of entertainment, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in Fort Wayne. Some neighborhoods aren’t as great as others.

So the question arises, which Fort Wayne neighborhoods are the worst, and which are the best?

Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Fort Wayne hoods need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Fort Wayne area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the neighborhoods to be amazing, although Arlington Park ranks way above the rest.

We examined 233 of Fort Wayne’s neighborhoods to find out the worst places to live. These places don’t quite measure up to Fort Wayne’s reputation.

How we determined the worst Fort Wayne hoods

To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We threw the following criteria into this analysis in order to get the best, most complete results possible. We used this set of criteria for each neighborhood in Fort Wayne:

High unemployment (Less jobs)

Low median income (Less pay)

Low population density (No things to do)

Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)

High crime (Estimated)

Then, we ranked each neighborhood in Fort Wayne for each of these criteria from worst to best.

Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criteria into a ‘Worst Score’.

The neighborhood with the lowest ‘Worst Score’ ranks as the worst neighborhood of Fort Wayne.

Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Fort Wayne to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 233 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased. Hold on to your pants.

1. Highland Park Forest

Population: 65Median Income: $21,275Median Home Value: $58,900

2. Harvester

Population: 379Median Income: $24,750Median Home Value: $38,800

3. Chapel Oaks

Population: 157Median Income: $13,388Median Home Value: $34,500

4. Memorial Park

Population: 778Median Income: $22,722Median Home Value: $46,033

5. Branning Hills

Population: 214Median Income: $12,340Median Home Value: $88,600

6. Suburan Heights

Population: 283Median Income: $23,607Median Home Value: $39,800

7. Oakland Park

Population: 119Median Income: $25,158Median Home Value: $83,200

8. South Suburan

Population: 1,616Median Income: $18,039Median Home Value: $50,267

9. East Central

Population: 2,494Median Income: $23,791Median Home Value: $32,420

10. East Side

Population: 1,018Median Income: $25,489Median Home Value: $29,900

The ‘hoods around Fort Wayne that are really hoods

Well there you have it — the worst of the neighborhoods in Fort Wayne with Highland Park Forest landing at the bottom of the pack.

As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Fort Wayne aren’t all bad. Arlington Park takes the cake as the best place to live in Fort Wayne.